Sunsets & Ice Cream
by seasidehearts
Summary: Sora's having trouble with school after coming back from his journey and Kairi tries to help, but she's a little distracted. SoKai, post-KH2 semi-canon. One-shot for now, might become a two-shot.


**A one-shot inspired by me cosplaying a formal dress version of Kairi and talking to my followers about it on tumblr lol. This may end up turning into a two-shot, but for now I'm going to put it up as 'complete'.**

**I'm really uncreative with titles. I'm sorry. It seems like it'd be an AkuRoku or a Rokushi fanfic by the title but it's not lol. But you'll see. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of its characters, etc. etc. **

Sunsets & Ice Cream

It'd been about a month since we'd come back home, and we were all trying to get back in the hang of going to school. For me, it wasn't as much of a big deal. But Riku and Sora were both months behind. Riku was starting to catch up now, but Sora was having major troubles. So he came to me for help, saying I was the only one patient enough to work with him.

At first, Riku tried to help as well, but just as Sora said, he often got annoyed so it ended up becoming just us two. For a while, it worked out great and Sora's grades were starting to go up. But as prom creeped closer, I found myself more and more distracted. Instead of focusing on helping him, I was constantly daydreaming about how he would ask me to prom. That is _if _he would at all.

"Kairi?"

I turned my head from the window to face Sora. "Hm?"

He pushed a piece of paper towards me, "Can you check these?"

Staring at the math equations blankly for a moment, I replied, "Oh. Yeah, I will." I picked up the paper and placed it in my lap, my eyes only scanning over it for a moment before I heard Sora's voice.

"Hey, are you okay? You seem preoccupied today." I looked up, about to interrupt him when he gave an apologetic smile, "I understand if you're tired of tutoring me. I know I'm not the easiest student. I can just start staying after school with the teacher more often, if you want."

I flushed, "No! It's not that." I turned to the window to hide my face and lied, "I'm just distracted because it's so nice out today." I turned back to flash a quick smile, "How about finishing studying outside?"

He shrugged, gathering his books together and answering, "Sure, if you want to."

"Great." I stood up and hurried out the door and to the picnic table out in front of my house. Putting down his papers, I started to look over it in depth.

As I was almost finished, I heard him approaching as he commented, "You're right. It is really nice today." He sat down beside me and I pushed his papers towards him.

"Looks good." I smiled, "You just have a tiny error on number seven."

He leaned down, staring intently at the problem until a relieved sigh escaped his lips, "Okay, I see what I did." He pulled out a pencil and scribbled down a few things before pushing it back to me, "How's it now?"

I looked down and nodded, "Perfect."

"Phew!" He stretched out his arms and yawned, "I'm glad I'm getting better, but math is still so exhausting. My brain is dead for the day."

I giggled, "Yeah, I agree."

"Thanks so much for helping me, Kairi. I couldn't do it without you." He grinned and I felt my face growing warm again.

"No problem. We're best friends. That's what we do."

He nodded, still smiling, "So… what should we do now?"

"Ice cream to celebrate how well you're doing?" I suggested with a wide smile.

"Alright!" He jumped up from the picnic table, offering his hand, "Let's go."

Laughing, I took his hand and let him pull me up from the table and down the road. Our hands stayed connected for a minute as we walked down the road before Sora suddenly pulled his hand away and muttered and embarrassed, "Sorry."

I smiled sheepishly, "It's okay." It was more than okay. I desperately wanted to ask him to keep my hand in his but I wasn't brave enough to even try. Thankfully there was only one ice cream ship on the island and it happened to be near my house so our awkward silence didn't last long.

"What flavor do you want?" He asked as we approached the glass doors.

"Hmm… Chocolate, I guess. Why?" I titled my head in confusion after Sora didn't answer. He pulled the door open and held it for me before rushing over to the counter and paying for both of our orders before I realized what he was doing.

Digging out money from my pocket to pay him back as I walked over, he shook his head, "Don't."

"O-okay." I stared at my feet for a moment before looking back up and comment, "I guess you do owe me for tutoring you."

"Uh," He scratched the back of his neck, "I was just buying it for you just because. But I guess that works too."

"Here you go," The employee's voice caught us both off guard. I looked at the cones he was holding, seeing Sora had ordered strawberry.

Sora turned back around and took the cones, smiling, "Thanks." He turned back to me, holding out my ice cream, "Here you go."

"Thank you." I smiled before turning towards the door. Looking at the sky's color, I muttered, "Oh, no."

I felt Sora's hand lightly grasp my shoulder as he asked worriedly, "What? What's wrong?"

"Sorry." I shook my head, "Didn't mean to scare you. It's just, we won't have enough time to make it out to the play island to watch the sunset."

"Oh…" His hand fell back to his side as he looked out the door, "I guess not."

I stepped forward and pushed the door open, answering quietly, "It's okay."

Sora hurried out the door and stepped in front of me, "It may not be the play island, but I know a place."

I squinted my eyes, "Where?"

"You'll see." He started walking and I quickly followed behind him. As I was taking a bite out of my cone, Sora began talking, "You know, the basic ice cream flavors just aren't as good anymore compared to sea-salt ice cream."

"It sounds like eating frozen ocean water so it sounds kinda gross." I laughed and stuck out my tongue.

Sora laughed too, "Nah, it's nothing like htat. You'll get to try it someday. Promise."

"Okay." I nodded excitedly.

"I'm actually surprised you didn't have any while you were with Hayner, Pence and Olette. They're always eating that stuff."

"Well I wasn't there for very long…" I trailed off.

"Right. Sorry." He replied with a frown.

"It's okay. Don't worry about it." I shrugged. The past was the past.

"Here we are." Sora stopped suddenly.

I raised an eyebrow, "Your house…?"

"Mhm." He stared at it proudly.

"Okay…" I replied suspiciously. I'd been in his house a thousand times and there definitely wasn't a good place to watch the sunset from. '_What is he up to…?'_ I thought as he motioned me forward.

"Just don't let your ice cream drip on stuff or else you'll be hearing about it from my mom."

"I don't doubt it." She practically treated me like her own kid, so she'd probably scold me and say I knew better or something like that if I left a mess. Sora led me up the stairs, stopping in front of his room. "Your room? But Sora, your room faces the opposite way…" I trailed off, '_What is he thinking?'_

He shook his head, "Nooo, not my room." He walked into the bathroom and began opening the window, "We're going on the roof."

"The roof?" I repeated, a little scared, "Are you sure it's safe?"

"Yeah, I've done it loads of times ever since we got home. It's kinda my thinking spot when I need some alone time." He stepped on top of the toilet and carefully climbed out the window as he spoke, then looked at me after he was fully outside.

"You sure you want to show me your other secret place? I mean, you showed me the first one already even after you told Riku you wouldn't tell anyone." I grinned.

"Well, I've already told you where it is now, so it's too late to take it back." He looked away momentarily, scratching the back of his neck, "Guess I just can't keep secrets from you."

A big smile taking over my face for a moment, I tried to shake myself out of it and stepped up on to the toilet, "You're going to have to help me. I have a feeling I'm going to trip or something trying to get out the window."

"Okay." Sora extended his free hand to me, leaning his body against the house.

Taking his hand, I slowly leaned out the window, making sure my ice cream didn't hit the top on the way out. Realizing I was still in my school uniform, I warned Sora, "Don't look or you'll pay."

Sora seemed extremely confused for a second but quickly understood. He quickly looked away, "Uh, right. Got it."

Lifting one leg out the window with ease, I lifted the other one a little too quickly and ended up scraping my shin against the window and stumbled a tiny bit and whined, "Ouch!"

I felt Sora's hand tighten around mine as I stumbled and heard, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah…" I pulled down my sock a little bit to see a small amount of blood but mostly broken skin, "Just a scratch. I'll survive."

He laughed, "Sorry about that."

"It's not your fault." I replied, "Just me not being careful."

"Well, we still have to go around the side of the house so gotta make sure to be more careful now." He began edging forward, pulling my hand softly.

"Okay, I promise to be less clumsy." I said with a smile.

"Good." He turned his head around to smile back.

Finally making it around the narrow corner, I looked up and saw the sunset, "Wow!" I looked over to him, "This really is a great place to watch it!"

"Knew you'd like it." Sora let go of my hand and sat down. Carefully sitting myself down as well, we both sat in silence for a few minutes; just watching the sunset and enjoying our ice cream. "You know," Sora spoke suddenly, "This feels kinda familiar…"

"What do you mean?" I looked over at him with curiosity.

"It's kind of like déjà vu, but it's different. It's stronger than that."

"Hmm…" I paused, "Do you think it could be Roxas…?"

"I dunno…" Sora closed his eyes and took a few breaths before opening them again, "I think you might be right."

I looked back at the sky and suggested, "I guess Roxas liked watching the sunset, too."

"Hm." He stared off into the distance, "Do you ever have moments like this? With Naminé?"

"Kind of. I've been drawing a lot more lately and I feel odd then, too. I've just never put two and two together." I smiled a bit to myself, "I haven't really drawn much since I was little. It's kind of cool she's bringing me back to something I'd pretty much forgotten about."

Sora looked over at me, a curious look on his face, "What do you draw?"

"I like drawing from reference. So I do landscapes a lot. Sometimes people." I explained, absent mindedly twirling a piece of my hair around my finger.

"People, huh? Have you ever drawn me?" He raised an eyebrow and smirked.

I looked down, blushing, "…Yes."

"How about Riku?" He asked next and I shook my head. "Why not?"

"I just… haven't gotten around to it, I guess." I shrugged, taking a bite out of what was left of my ice cream cone.

"Well, anyway… can you show me your drawings someday?" He changed the subject.

I looked up and smiled, "Sure."

"Cool." He grinned and looked back at the sunset. He stayed quiet for a minute before continuing to speak, "Thanks again, for tutoring me and stuff. But aside from that, I've really liked hanging out with just you. Usually it's all three of us or just me and Riku."

"I've liked hanging out with you too, Sora." I replied happily.

"Great. There's something I've been wanting to ask you, though. I guess now's a better time than never." He twiddled his thumbs together nervously.

"What is it?" I asked, unsure if it was going to be what I had been waiting for or something completely different.

He took a deep breath and let it out, asking quickly, "Will you go to prom with me?" Before I had the chance to reply, he kept going, "I mean, I don't really know how to dance or anything… A-and we can go just as friends if you want!"

"Sora!" I reached out and put my hand in front of his face, "Stop it. You didn't even let me answer."

"You're right. I'm sorry." He frowned and shook his head, "I'm just really nervous. I shouldn't have asked, I've just made everything awkward—"

"I'd love to go with you." I lowered my hand back into my lap to let him see the big smile on my face as I said it.

"Really?" He asked in disbelief, "I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to. Don't do it just to make me feel better."

I rolled my eyes, responding, "I've been waiting for you to ask me for the past few weeks. I definitely want to."

I saw relief wash over him as he realized I was telling the truth, "So I freaked out for nothing?"

"Mhm." I giggled, "I enjoyed it though."

Sora pouted, "Not exactly what I wanted to hear. Just… don't tell Riku I was like this, okay? This is just between us."

"Okay, okay." I nodded with a small smirk, "I won't. As much as I want to."

He smiled softly, taking his hand in mine, "Thanks, Kai."


End file.
